Dedicated to the Business of Contemporary Live Music
BRADFORD METROPOLITAN District Council has granted not-for-profit development group Bradford Live planning permission to turn a former Odeon cinema into a new 4,000-capacity live entertainment venue. Work is already underway to remove the 1960s additions to the building and revitalise many of its original 1930s art deco features. The venue, which has…
Read moreLIVE NATION Entertainment (LNE) and UK subsidiaries including Festival Republic have signed-up to a sustainability charter, which aims to cut greenhouse emissions by 50 per cent by 2030. The initiative also includes ending the sale of single-use plastics at its venues and festivals by 2021. Under the banner Green Nation, the…
Read moreBIRMINGHAM’S 1,901 Symphony Hall has received £4.5 million of Arts Council funding as part of its £13.2m redevelopment programme. When completed, the city centre venue will feature a new entrance, extra bars, new education centres and corporate hospitality suites and additional performance spaces, while the box office will also be relocated….
Read moreTHE GROWING punk revival is proving a lifeline for independent promoters working outside the major cities. That is according to Stephen Stanley of Grimsby-based Solid Entertainments, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. “In the past few years a lot of the acts who played in the late ‘70s are…
Read moreRICHARD GRIFFITHS and Harry Magee, the co-founders of management company Modest!, have been awarded this year’s Music Industry Trusts (MITS) Award after four decade careers that have seen them more recently develop artistes including Little Mix and Olly Murs, and The Spice Girls. Previous winners of the award, which supports live…
Read moreFESTIVAL PROMOTER Broadwick Live’s venue operating division Broadwick Venues is expanding its portfolio outside of London with the opening of Depot Mayfield (cap. 10,000) in Manchester. Located on the site of a derelict former railway station, the new venue, which opens in August with Manchester Pride, has been described as a…
Read moreTHE 12,500-capacity Event Complex Aberdeen is to be renamed P&J Live after a deal was struck between venue operator SMG Europe and DC Thomson Media, which owns newspapers The Press and Journal and Evening Express. Set to open this summer, the £333 million complex will replace the Aberdeen Exhibition and…
Read moreCOVENTRY’S PREVIOUSLY free-admission 88,000-capacity Godiva Festival is introducing an entrance fee of £2, plus a £10 parking charge where applicable, for the first time, to cover the introduction of a ticket system and to ensure a safe event, according to organiser Coventry City Council (CCC). The move follows revelations that the…
Read moreLIVE NATION Entertainment (LNE) has appointed Scott Barton to head its newly-formed electronic music division Electronic Nation, which will encompass LNE’s electronic music activity across festivals, tours, clubs and concerts. His brother James Barton was founder of club and festival brands Cream and Creamfields, and now heads multinational festival owner…
Read moreAMERICA’S MADISON Square Garden Company (MSGC), which runs the legendary 18,600-capacity Madison Square Garden in New York, says the MSG Sphere venue it plans for East London will have a programmable exterior ‘skin’ of LED displays. It also says the venue will have ahigh-tech “adaptive” sound system within the arena bowl,…
Read moreTHE OPERATOR of Manchester Arena (cap. 21,000) fears for the future of the venue if the city council presses ahead with plans for a 20,000-capacity arena near to the Etihad Campus, which includes the 63,000-capacity Etihad Stadium. John Sharkey, executive vice-president of operations at SMG Europe, which manages Manchester Arena, believes…
Read morePRESTON’S GUILD Hall has closed and its operating company has been placed into administration. The venue, which opened in 1973 and hosted early shows by Led Zeppelin and David Bowie, comprised the Grand Hall (cap. 2,500) and Charter Theatre (720). The complex was sold by Preston Council to local businessman Simon…
Read moreTHE MJR Group has closed 1,000-capacity The Assembly in Leamington Spa, but dismisses suggestions it has anything to do with payment issues within the Group, which have left some promoters and suppliers owed money for months. MJR says the lease had run out on the venue and it had become commercially…
Read moreRADIO GIANT Global, whose stations include Capital, LBC and Classic FM, has divested itself of it’s last festival, as it exits the live music sector. Having distributed all but one of its festival portfolio between Broadwick Live and Superstruct (see LIVE UK issue 232), Y Not? (cap. 29,000) has been taken over…
Read moreINDUSTRY FIGURES and associates are paying tributes to Steve Forster, founder and MD of venue services company VMS Live, who died on 19 April, aged 55, following a serious car accident two weeks earlier. Forster started his career as entertainment organiser of Newcastle Polytechnic (now Northumbria University), setting up his…
Read moreVENUE OPERATOR AEG and its ticketing partner AXS have launched a price-capped ticket resale platform for its London venues, The O2 (cap, 21,000), which it owns, and The SSE Arena, Wembley (12,500), which it operates. Branded AXS Official Resale, the service enables tickets to be re-sold at a maximum of…
Read moreMULTI-VENUE operator Academy Music Group (AMG) has taken over the running of the 2,135-capacity Newcastle City Hall. The deal followed an agreement between AMG, Fusion Lifestyle and the City Hall. As part of the arrangement, the Grade ll-listed venue, which opened in 1927, has now been renamed O2 City Hall…
Read moreTHE COMPANY behind Bristol’s new arena project has appointed architects to transform the city’s historic Brabazon hangars, where Concorde was developed and housed, into a 16,000-capacity live music venue. Grimshaw, responsible for projects including the Thermae Bath Spa and the Eden Project, will work with international stadium developer Manica Architecture…
Read moreDHP FAMILY, owner of The Garage (cap. 600) in north London, has welcomed a move by Islington Council planners, that will give it “strong protection” against developers. When Transport for London (TfL) announced plans to develop the buildings around the venue as part of improvements to Highbury and Islington tube…
Read morePRS FOUNDATION chief executive Vanessa Reed is leaving the charity after 11 years, to take up a post as president and CEO of New Music USA. During her time at PRS she spearheaded programmes such as Momentum, which provides grants of £5,000-15,000 to help emerging artistes progress, and Women Make…
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